The inhabitants of the Sunabeda plateau are disgruntled over an inordinate delay in supply of electricity to their villages.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had inaugurated the electrification project in the year 2015 at Nuapada, which assured electrification to all villages located in the plateau. The work started after the fund was allotted, but stopped half way when the Wild life department stopped the progress on the ground that forest and wild life clearance. In the meanwhile, most poles laid on the plateau have fallen and the cables have been damaged.
“When we met the Collector in September last, she assured that, the work would resume within 15 days but more than two months have elapsed and the work has not resumed,” lamented the villagers of Sunabeda. But what Wild life DFO Gadadhar Patra says about the clearance issues reveals that there is no certainty in resumption of the work. “The user agency in this case is the Wesco, Nuapada, which should have applied to the Forest as well as Wildlife departments for the diversion of forest land, but they have not yet done,” he said.
The Sunabeda plateau has 32 revenue villages and 20 hamlets in two Gram Panchayats with a total population of over 7,000. The electrification project envisaged supply of electricity to 31 villages under RlTAP scheme. The project work started in 2015 without obtaining any clearance under forest law. When the DFO wild life got information about the ongoing work, half of the work had been finished. “We had restricted access to the sanctuary area due to the presence of the Maoists; thus information about the electrification work could not be gathered. We raised objection and requested the Wesco to submit a proposal for diversion of land for the work,” said the DFO.
It is learnt that the Executive Engineer, Wesco, Nuapada sent a letter to the Wesco on August 28, 2017 requesting clearance without submitting any relevant documents. The DFO subsequently wrote the Wesco to submit all relevant documents which has not yet been compiled with by the Executive Engineer. “We have requested the Executive Engineer to submit 13 documents required for the processing of the proposal, but they have not done,” revealed the DFO. “How can we proceed violating the laws” asked he.
The people, on the other hand, are preparing for a demonstration in front of the Collectorate. “These officials are cheating us, because we are tribals,” said the villagers. “When we gheraoed the Collector’s office last year the then Collector Sidiq Alam wanted one month time. After more than one year, when we approached the present Collector madam, she wanted 15 days. This speaks volume about the attitude of these officers,” they added.